Federal Budget a shameful indictment of regressive policies

By Jenni Devereaux and Sally Edsall

There were no surprises when the Federal Budget was delivered on May 10.

The Budget measures in education and training had previously been announced as part of the Government's election promises last year.

Education has an extremely low priority compared to tax cuts, mostly for the most well off in Australia.

There were no initiatives to redress the Government's preferential funding of private schools which have seen massive increases over recent years, at the expense of public schools. In the four years 2005-2008, only 26.3 percent of direct federal recurrent funding will go to the almost 70 percent of children in public schools.

There were no initiatives to move any closer to the union's objective of a national plan to deliver universal and equitable access to at least one year of free, public high quality preschool education, or for a priority strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island children.

Successive years of underfunding of TAFE have resulted in tens of thousands of students missing out on places each year, increased reliance on casual staff, increased pressure on students in terms of fees and materials costs, skills shortages, and pressure on TAFE Institutes in regional areas.

Despite measures which the Government says will boost TAFE places, there is grossly inadequate funding and thousands will continue to miss out on places. As well, changes to the disability and parenting allowances mean that many students will no longer be eligible for fee rebates and support when they become NewStart recipients instead.

The Government continues to push its socially conservative agenda, and probably its industrial relations agenda by tying funding for education to the states accepting their other agenda items. This is political blackmail. "No funding without flagpoles" may seem a minor item, but the danger is that this may also become "no funding without accepting individual employment contracts and doing away with collective awards".

Measures in the Budget such as the proposed system of Australian Technical Colleges, the tutorial vouchers initiative and the school maintenance program, which will see schools in relatively advantaged areas competing for funds against the socially-economically disadvantaged, are opposed by Federation.

It is also important to stress the impact of other Budget measures on the families and neighbourhoods of children in the public education system, and those who work in it.

There are many studies which examine the relationship between socio-economic status and education. Socio-economic status continues to be one of the most significant determinants of educational outcomes.

The Business Council of Australia's The Cost of Dropping Out: The Economic Impact of Early School Leaving highlights the fact that young people who leave the education or training systems early are at considerable risk of experiencing long periods of disadvantage and poverty and unemployment, and are more likely to have poorer health, rely considerably on welfare services and to be involved in crime.

The most recent report from the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, Learning for Tomorrow's World -- First Results from PISA 2003, observes that, in certain countries, Australia included, there is a significant correlation between the socio-economic background of students and the quantity and quality of educational resources provided.

The educational consequences of the socially regressive measures in this Budget will further reinforce these differences.

This Budget gives to the rich, takes money from the poor, takes money from the disabled, provides no resources for social infrastructure, fails to provide funding for improved health care and continues its largesse to private schools and under funding of public education.

$22 billion in tax cuts that benefit Australia's highest income earners does nothing to redress the unequal distribution of social, economic and cultural assets -- including income, wealth, power and academic credentials -- in Australian society.

Income inequality, and all the consequences associated with it, including major differences in the total social investment in the education of children across Australia, will continue to grow. This will compromise children's and young people's access to and participation in education, particularly those from families of low socio-economic status.

The quality of health, nutrition, physical and emotional security, attention from helpful adults, peer support, time available for school work, academic and other resources in the home all impact on individual students.

Living on a low income is typically characterised by:

• limited access to financial and other physical resources
• economic dependency and insecurity
• labour market vulnerability
• limited educational and health resources
• living in neighbourhoods with damaged social and physical environments.

The educational consequences of these pressures on students and their families include low school attainment, early school leaving and poor employment options, all of which foster the reproduction of social and educational inequalities through the inter-generational transfer of inequity.

It is to the Government's shame that this situation is not only allowed to continue, but actively exacerbated by their policies.

Jenni Devereaux is the Acting AEU Federal Research Officer and Sally Edsall is a Research Officer.

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